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Category: UK news

  • UN experts warn UK government over trafficking risk faced by asylum seeker children

    OHCHR express concern over fate of missing, unaccompanied children and breach of international law

    UN experts have warned the UK government that its treatment of unaccompanied asylum seeker children is increasing the risk they could be trafficked and is breaching international law.

    A statement from the UN office of the high commissioner for human rights (OHCHR) expressed concern about the fate of the missing children and urged the UK government to do more to protect them.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Is the UK true to its word on the prevention of torture?

    Rules for Britain’s intelligence services seem strict – but experts say they give too much room for manoeuvre

    After the 9/11 attacks on the United States and the UK intelligence agencies’ embroilment in scandals relating to the “war on terror”, the government published a policy on torture and intelligence, then known as the “consolidated guidance”. The aim was to show the standards to which the UK holds itself and its intelligence agencies.

    The current rules, “the principles”, which replaced the consolidated guidance, were drawn up after the 2018 apology for Britain’s role in the rendition of a Libyan dissident, Abdel Hakim Belhaj, and his wife, as well as two damning reports published by the parliamentary intelligence and security committee (ISC) in the same year, which found that MI5 and MI6 were involved in hundreds of torture cases and scores of rendition cases after 9/11.

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  • UK torture policy labelled ‘fatally flawed’ after watchdog report

    Investigatory powers commissioner has identified non-compliance by intelligence agencies and MoD

    The UK’s policy on torture has been described as “fatally flawed” after a watchdog identified non-compliance by intelligence agencies and the Ministry of Defence.

    An influential parliamentary group and human rights campaigners say failings identified by the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office (IPCO) demonstrate the rules must be changed.

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  • Live facial recognition labelled ‘Orwellian’ as Met police push ahead with use

    Human rights groups say cameras are form of mass surveillance, as report finds ‘substantial improvement’ in accuracy

    Live facial recognition cameras are a form of mass surveillance, human rights campaigners have said, as the Met police said it would press ahead with its use of the “gamechanging” technology.

    Britain’s largest force said the technology could be used to catch terrorists and find missing people after research published on Wednesday reported a “substantial improvement” in its accuracy.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Europe’s human rights watchdog warns UK over illegal migration bill

    Council of Europe’s experts say bill is ‘step backwards’ in fight against modern slavery

    Europe’s human rights watchdog has warned the UK government that its plans to curb the rights of trafficking victims in its illegal migration bill is a “significant step backwards” in the fight against human trafficking and modern slavery and demonstrates a lack of compliance with international law.

    In a highly unusual move, the Council of Europe’s group of experts on action against trafficking in human beings (Greta) on Wednesday expressed deep concern about the bill and its lack of compliance with core elements of the Council of Europe convention on action against trafficking in human beings.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • MPs urged to uphold UK’s global obligations in migration bill debate

    Council of Europe commissioner raises concerns that legislation may not meet human rights standards

    A European human rights commissioner has warned UK parliamentarians, before a debate on the government’s illegal migration bill, to uphold international obligations when scrutinising the proposed legislation.

    In a letter to the House of Commons and House of Lords published on Monday, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, Dunja Mijatović, said: “It is essential that parliamentarians prevent legislation that is incompatible with the United Kingdom’s international obligations being passed.”

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  • Rwanda scheme would ‘completely erode’ UK’s standing on world stage

    New Human Rights Watch head Tirana Hassan says UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers is ‘cheap politics’

    The UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda would “completely erode” Britain’s standing on the world stage, the new head of Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.

    Tirana Hassan, who takes over as HRW’s executive director on Monday, also said other conservative governments in Europe were considering following Britain’s lead and looking at African states as an offshore dumping ground for asylum seekers, potentially dealing further blows to established refugee protections.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Welcoming Benjamin Netanyahu to No 10 is an insult to British Palestinians like me | Sara Husseini

    The government’s mealy mouthed criticism of the Israeli PM’s increasingly rightwing policies is not enough. He should be persona non grata in the UK

    The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, might have been hoping for some brief respite from the tumult back home during his flying visit to London. Instead, in addition to his meeting with Rishi Sunak and other officials, the Likud leader was met with protests from human rights activists, including a protest by Amnesty International, a Palestine solidarity demonstration outside No 10 and another by the British Jewish group Na’amod.

    Such protests are well justified. Since the new government was sworn in, as reported by international governments, lawyers and human rights groups, Israel has furthered “annexation” of occupied land and advanced construction in illegal settlements. In 2023 so far, 75 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces (as of 13 March); last year, at least 231 Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, including nearly 40 children.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • ‘You walked in and your heart sank’: the shocking inside story of Manston detention centre

    Last year, the short-term facility in Kent ballooned into a vast, unsafe camp holding thousands of people, including children. How did our asylum system get so broken – and what does it reveal about Rishi Sunak’s promise to stop the small boats?

    In late September last year, a Home Office employee walked into a newly opened section of the Manston short-term holding facility in Kent and realised that conditions there were spiralling out of control: “It had got way beyond what was ethical and humane.”

    The site, a collection of marquees in the grounds of a former army barracks near a disused airport, was overcrowded, and staff were improvising increasingly unsuitable makeshift expansions. “There were people who’d been sleeping on a mat on the floor of a marquee for 20 days. We’d run out of space, so we were opening old bits of the site. They’d put some mats on the floor of the gym – a really old building. It looked like it was about to fall down. None of it had been set up with decent hygiene facilities, bedding or anything. You walked in and your heart just sank. I had a feeling of: ‘Oh my God, what have we got into here?’” says the official, who asked not to be identified.

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  • UK must fight for Jimmy Lai’s release, friend of jailed Hongkonger tells MPs

    Apple Daily founder and British national, 75, in jail since 2020 facing charges under national security law

    A close confidant of the jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has called on Britain to do more to secure the 75-year-old’s release.

    Lai, a prominent businessman and founder of Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper, has been detained since December 2020. He has been convicted of fraud and faces more serious charges of foreign collusion under Hong Kong’s sweeping national security law.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Brother of Biafra separatist held in Nigeria loses court challenge against UK

    UK government not required to state whether Nnamdi Kanu, a British national, was victim of extraordinary rendition, judge rules

    The brother of a British national being held in Nigeria after falling victim to extraordinary rendition has said he is disappointed after the high court dismissed his challenge to UK ministers’ handling of the case.

    Kingsley Kanu, brother of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), a prominent separatist movement proscribed in Nigeria, claimed that three foreign secretaries – Liz Truss, Dominic Raab and then James Cleverly – had acted unlawfully by failing to reach a view on whether he had been subjected to extraordinary rendition.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • US calls conditions in Rwanda’s detention centres harsh to life-threatening

    Ally’s criticism will be hard to dismiss as UK tries to push through £120m migrant scheme

    Britain’s closest ally, the US, has criticised Rwanda’s dire human rights record, describing conditions in the country’s detention centres as harsh to life-threatening.

    The British home secretary, Suella Braverman, took a group of journalists on a trip last week to reveal details of her £120m scheme to send all migrants arriving in the UK through irregular means to Rwanda whether they claim asylum or not. The legality of the scheme is due to be tested shortly in the UK court of appeal.

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  • Experts cast doubt on Braverman’s hopes of ECHR rule change on Rwanda

    Home secretary’s claims of ‘constructive’ talks regarding Strasbourg’s injunctions disputed by legal scholars

    Legal experts have cast doubt on the UK’s claims of “possible reforms” to European court of human rights procedures that stopped an asylum seeker from being deported to Rwanda last year.

    During a two-day visit to the country’s capital, Kigali, Suella Braverman told a selected group of government-friendly papers that she was “encouraged” by the government’s “constructive” talks with Strasbourg to overhaul court injunctions. An ECHR injunction last June prevented an Iraqi national from being deported from the UK to the east African country.

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  • Cruel Tory migration bill will erode basic right to seek asylum | Letters

    The impact the policy will have across the world can’t be ignored, says Oliver Lough. Plus letters from Derrick Joad, Nigel Griffin and David Duell

    Rafael Behr is right to draw attention to both the unworkability and the inhumanity of the proposed illegal migration bill (‘Stop the boats’ shows how Britain is really being governed: by Tory campaign leaflet, 14 March). But it is also important to look beyond domestic concerns. At a time when displacement across borders due to war, climate breakdown and economic collapse are becoming increasingly common, Britain risks joining a growing list of privileged countries whose actions threaten to undermine the basic right to seek asylum from persecution. Already, the US is turning away refugees at its southern border, and the militarisation and criminalisation of asylum in the Mediterranean is well entrenched.

    Countries adjacent to crises are the primary hosts of most of the world’s refugees. They are not blind to the hypocrisy of wealthy nations, which insist that refugees be supported and protected “over there” while relying on hostile and legally dubious solutions to prevent them coming “over here”. If the world’s richest countries are prepared to undermine its norms, the international refugee protection regime risks descending into a free-for-all, where each country will act as it sees fit – denial of refugee status, detention, violent pushbacks and forced repatriation – with the rights and needs of vulnerable people relegated to an absolute last priority.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Suella Braverman’s ‘stop the boats’ plan would bar 45,000 children from UK

    Refugee Council’s claims on impact of her bill come as the home secretary, on a visit to Rwanda, faces pressure from her own party

    Suella Braverman’s plan to stop the Channel crossings would see as many as 45,000 children effectively barred from refugee status in the UK, the Observer has been told.

    The claims are made in a forthcoming Refugee Council report analysing the overall impact of the illegal migration bill, which reveals the possible extent of children who could have their asylum claims deemed inadmissible under the new laws. The news comes as the home secretary is facing a mounting rebellion from both wings of the Tory party over her controversial plans to tackle the Channel crossings, amid growing concerns over their impact on children and trafficking victims.

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  • UK aid to India does little for human rights and democracy, watchdog finds

    Programme spent £2.7bn between 2016 and 2021 but is fragmented and lacks a clear rationale, report says

    Britain’s aid programme to India is fragmented, lacks a clear rationale and does little to counter the negative trends in human rights and democracy in the country, the government’s aid watchdog has found.

    The findings are likely to be used by those who claim the UK government risks using its aid programme to deepen its relationship with India, including seeking free trade deals, rather than attempting to reduce poverty, which is the statutory purpose of UK aid.

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  • The Guardian view on refugee rights: a warning from history | Editorial

    Rishi Sunak’s pretence of serious statecraft is belied by his embrace of shabby populism when it comes to immigration law

    Britain did not sign up to the 1951 United Nations refugee convention by accident, nor was the country bamboozled into the European convention on human rights and cooperation with the Strasbourg court that enforces the convention. It was an architect of those institutions.

    The ambition was to lay solid foundations of European cooperation for the establishment of a peaceful democratic order after the second world war. Winston Churchill was a leading advocate of that project.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • What are the legal obstacles faced by the UK’s illegal migration bill?

    Suella Braverman has denied the government is breaking the law but experts say it faces many challenges

    A major piece of legislation unveiled this week seeks to achieve nothing less than the holy grail of current immigration policy: making asylum claims inadmissible from those who travel to the UK on small boats.

    The illegal migration bill, to give its provisional title, would involve a duty placed on the home secretary to remove “as soon as reasonably practicable”, to Rwanda or a “safe third country”, anyone who arrives on a small boat. Those who arrive will also be prevented from ever claiming asylum in the UK.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Brexit trade treaty ‘could be terminated’ if UK quits ECHR over small boat crossings

    Legal experts say Brussels has right to take retaliatory action, making cross-border law enforcement harder

    The UK’s trade agreement with the EU could be immediately terminated if the British government quits the European convention on human rights (EHCR) over the issue of stopping small boat crossings across the Channel, legal experts have said.

    Under the 2020 trade and cooperation agreement (TCA), the EU has the right to take retaliatory action including the ending of the hard-fought agreements on extradition and access to the database of biometric data including fingerprints and DNA, said Steve Peers, a professor of EU and human rights law.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Illegal migration bill will hurt women trafficked to UK, Starmer tells PM

    Labour leader attacks plans, but Rishi Sunak calls Starmer ‘just another lefty lawyer standing in our way’

    Rishi Sunak’s plan to stop small boat crossings will “drive a coach and horses” through protections for women who are trafficked to Britain as victims of modern slavery, Keir Starmer has said.

    The Labour leader made the warning to coincide with International Women’s Day, as he labelled new legislation to tackle illegal migration a “gimmick” and warned it was likely to lead to yet another broken promise.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Ella Baron on the Sunak and Braverman plan for small boats — cartoon

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • What does the UK’s small boats plan mean for relations with France?

    Emmanuel Macron and Rishi Sunak meet on Friday with the UK’s new bill high on the agenda

    Emmanuel Macron and Rishi Sunak meet in Paris on Friday for the first bilateral summit between France and Britain since 2018. High on the agenda will be the longstanding row over small boats crossing the Channel, given new impetus by the plan to tackle the issue announced by the UK on Tuesday.

    What’s the state of Anglo-French relations?

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  • What does the UK government’s bill on illegal migration propose?

    Ministers say the bill will stop people crossing the Channel in small boats but critics say the plans are unworkable

    In 2022, 45,755 men, women and children crossed the Channel in small boats to reach the UK, most of whom then claimed asylum. Nearly 3,000 people have already made the crossing this year, with official estimates expecting more than 80,000 this year.

    Rishi Sunak has promised to end the small boats once and for all, by introducing the illegal migration bill. Critics including former Tory ministers have claimed it is doomed to be halted by challenges in the EU courts and will be used as an issue to attack Labour in a general election campaign.

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  • Suella Braverman: small boats plan will push boundaries of international law

    Rishi Sunak says bill will ‘take back control of our borders’ but critics argue the proposals are unworkable

    Suella Braverman has admitted the government is attempting to push “the boundaries of international law” with legislation aimed at reducing small boat crossings in the Channel.

    The law, to be disclosed to MPs at lunchtime on Tuesday, is expected to place a legal duty on the home secretary to detain and remove nearly all asylum seekers who arrive “irregularly” such as via small boats in the Channel.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Anti-strike bill ‘fails to meet UK’s human rights obligations’, MPs and peers say

    Joint committee warns that proposed laws are ‘not justified and need to be reconsidered’

    Controversial legislation designed to curb strike action fails to meet the UK’s human rights obligations, MPs and peers have warned.

    The joint committee on human rights has said the government’s proposed anti-strike laws are “not justified and need to be reconsidered”.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Rishi Sunak to launch bill to stop people arriving on small boats claiming asylum

    Law would also place duty on home secretary to send anyone who arrives on small boat in UK to Rwanda or another country

    Rishi Sunak is to announce new laws stopping people entering the UK on small boats from claiming asylum, with the prime minister saying: “Make no mistake, if you come here illegally, you will not to be able to stay.”

    The prime minister and his home secretary will launch the legislation this week, as part of the government’s drive to “tackle illegal migration”, one of its main priorities.

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  • Living in Britain, fighting for rights in Iran: ‘the lives that are lost are not in vain’ – video

    Haleh, an Iranian woman who has lived in Britain since the age of 15, says ‘our lives have changed forever’ after the brutal murder of a young woman in Tehran last September. Mahsa Amini was arrested by the Iranian morality police for wearing her hijab ‘improperly’, but collapsed and died in custody a few days later. Her death sparked huge international outrage and protest. In the UK, the Iranian community continues to turn out weekly to show solidarity with the movement in Iran, spearheaded by women and teenagers, demanding fundamental rights for women and pushing for a change in Iranian leadership. We join part of the British movement, an activist group called United4Mahsa, to see how members are showing support and spreading awareness about the situation in Iran

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Maintenance failures sparked Heathrow detention centre disturbances, FoI reveals

    Freedom of information responses reveal damning findings of internal investigations into power cuts at Harmondsworth in 2022

    A catalogue of maintenance failures over more than a decade caused power cuts that triggered disturbances at Europe’s largest immigration detention centre last year, the Guardian has learned.

    The disturbances at Harmondsworth, the 676-bed centre near Heathrow, led to elite prison squads and the Metropolitan police being called to the scene to quell the protest. As a result of the power failure the centre had to be closed for several weeks and detainees relocated to other detention centres and prisons around the UK.

    No evidence of maintenance of air circuit breakers since installation and one had been tripping multiple times since June 2022

    Some equipment still at risk of failure because it is obsolete and no longer manufactured

    Switching strategy on some equipment not operational since 2008/9

    Excessive heat buildup in the electrical switch room

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Campaigners hail law raising age of marriage to 18 in England and Wales

    Now illegal for 16- and 17-year-olds to marry or enter a civil partnership, even with parental consent

    Campaigners have hailed a new law raising the legal age of marriage in England and Wales as a significant milestone in child protection.

    The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act comes into force on Monday following a five-year campaign and will prevent 16- and 17-year-olds from marrying or entering a civil partnership, even if they have parental consent.

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  • The real scandal of the Shamima Begum citizenship case | Letters

    Former supreme court justice Jonathan Sumption on last week’s ruling on the home secretary’s decision to deprive Begum of her citizenship. Plus letters from Ilina Todorovska, Owen Stewart, Andrew Snowdon and Carmel Bedford

    Prof Conor Gearty complains about the special immigration appeals commission’s “deference” to the government in its judgment on Shamima Begum (Shamima Begum has shown up courts’ deference to this government. It’s a worrying new era, 23 February). Decisions on deprivation of citizenship are required by statute to be made by the home secretary. The commission’s job was therefore to decide whether the home secretary’s decision was properly made, not whether it agreed with it. That is what it did. In a democracy governed by the rule of law, Prof Gearty should not have been surprised.

    Meanwhile, his analysis distracts attention from the real scandal. By statute, the home secretary cannot deprive a person of British citizenship if it would render them stateless. The person must have citizenship of at least one other country. When the decision was made, in 2019, Ms Begum was 19. She was a citizen of Bangladesh, but only in the most technical sense. She had provisional citizenship until she was 21, when it would lapse unless she took it up. This was because her parents were born there. But she has never been to Bangladesh. She has no links with the country. And Bangladesh has disowned her. Her Bangladeshi citizenship always was a legal fiction. Today, it is not even that. She is 23. As a result of the home secretary’s decision, she is stuck in a camp in Syria, with no citizenship anywhere and no prospect of one. Children who make a terrible mistake are surely redeemable. But statelessness is for ever.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.